campingmomto2
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2007
- Messages
- 16
We returned Mon PM from a 14 night stay at the Fort. It was wonderful! We live in NJ and drove down in 2.5 days. Arrived on Sun, 8/19 around 1pm. We were in the 1400 loop. The campground was empty for most of our stay. We pretty much had our half of the loop to ourselves. Our last 2 nights (Labor Day weekend) was a different story!! On Fri AM, we could not see any of our neighbors in the loop. We went out for a few hours and came back to the loop completely filled!! Even the loop next to us (which was closed the entire 2 weeks) was now open and filled! We couldn't get over how many people were there for the weekend! When we went to return our golf cart on Saturday, we asked if we could keep it for one more night...NOPE, they had over 80 people on a waiting list for one!
The kids had a great time in the campground. My son especially loved all the lizards and toads in our site. We also had ducks that visited on a daily basis and lots of bunny rabbits. While riding around the Fort, we spotted a large owl down towards the Settlement and a small alligator in the canal down by the group camping area. It was the first time we ever saw an alligator in the wild and the kids were both excited and scared!
We did notice that a few of the loops were competely empty and they were doing work in them. We saw a lot of the loops being cleared between the sites with big dumpsters filled with plants/growth that were being torn out. It was sad to see as one of the things I like about the Fort is the privacy you have between the sites. I asked some of the workers why they were removing the bushes, etc and they told me it was for fire safety. They told me don't worry, it will grow back!
Overall, the weather for the 2 weeks was good. We had no rain at all the first week. The second week we did have a lot of afternoon/evening thunderstorms. It was VERY hot and humid for the entire 2 weeks, but it was managable. We visited both BB and TL and the kids loved it. We swam at Meadows a couple of times, but I didn't find it that refreshing as the water was too warm!
We did the Hoop Dee Doo and loved it. We also ate at Trails End and thought it was great (great value for both breakfast and dinner). We used the Disney transportation and found it very efficient. We hadn't been to Disney in over 3 years and found that the transportation improved greatly!! We never waited more than 10 minutes except one night we wanted to go to the MK to see SpectroMagic. We went to the marina and had to wait for 3 boats. We finally got on a boat to Contemporary and then took the monorail from there to MK. It seemed like everyone was going to the MK that night! We did take the boat on EMH mornings and there were boats running at 7:30am with no problems. We were at MK by 8am (after stopping at WL).
Our only disappointment was the crowds. We really thought that the crowds would be a lot lower since we went the last 2 weeks of August. Although the campground was empty, it seems that the parks were crowded. We would go to the parks when they opened and they weren't bad. But by early afternoon, it was hot and crowded. A lot of rides had 40 minutes or more wait. We did Fastpass and that helped. I'm sure the Free Dining offer wasn't helping with the crowds!
We did get a dream while we were there. During the 2 weeks, we saw many Dream Team members granting dreams to guests, but never us. On our last night we had dinner at Garden Grill at Epcot. When they sat us at our table, they told us they had good news for us. We were their "Garden Grill Family of the Day"!! The chef came out and introduced himself and gave us a free appetizer...a yummy plate of BBQ ribs (and they were better than the ones at the Hoop Dee Doo!). As we were about to bite into them, Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale arrived at our table all at once and spent a lot of time with the kids! At the end of dinner, we were asked to sign their Dreams Guest book and then they gave us fast passes to any attraction we wanted. Prior to dinner, we had try to get fast passes for Test Track, but they were all gone when we got there at 3:30 pm. There was a 50 minute wait for standby. The kids (and mom!) was disappointed. Well, after we got the free fast passes, we headed right to Test Track! The whole evening was a perfect way to spend our last night of our vacation!
This was our 2nd time camping at Fort Wilderness and it was wonderful!! It has always been a dream of ours to spend more than one week at WDW. With the campgound, we could afford it! In fact, the rate we got during value season was cheaper than what we pay for a campground back in NJ or PA during the summer! We made a lot of memories on the trip that the kids will not forget. The kids want to know when are we going back. In fact, my daughter told me today that she wants to go back to the Fort for her birthday. Her birthday is next month!!!
The kids had a great time in the campground. My son especially loved all the lizards and toads in our site. We also had ducks that visited on a daily basis and lots of bunny rabbits. While riding around the Fort, we spotted a large owl down towards the Settlement and a small alligator in the canal down by the group camping area. It was the first time we ever saw an alligator in the wild and the kids were both excited and scared!
We did notice that a few of the loops were competely empty and they were doing work in them. We saw a lot of the loops being cleared between the sites with big dumpsters filled with plants/growth that were being torn out. It was sad to see as one of the things I like about the Fort is the privacy you have between the sites. I asked some of the workers why they were removing the bushes, etc and they told me it was for fire safety. They told me don't worry, it will grow back!
Overall, the weather for the 2 weeks was good. We had no rain at all the first week. The second week we did have a lot of afternoon/evening thunderstorms. It was VERY hot and humid for the entire 2 weeks, but it was managable. We visited both BB and TL and the kids loved it. We swam at Meadows a couple of times, but I didn't find it that refreshing as the water was too warm!
We did the Hoop Dee Doo and loved it. We also ate at Trails End and thought it was great (great value for both breakfast and dinner). We used the Disney transportation and found it very efficient. We hadn't been to Disney in over 3 years and found that the transportation improved greatly!! We never waited more than 10 minutes except one night we wanted to go to the MK to see SpectroMagic. We went to the marina and had to wait for 3 boats. We finally got on a boat to Contemporary and then took the monorail from there to MK. It seemed like everyone was going to the MK that night! We did take the boat on EMH mornings and there were boats running at 7:30am with no problems. We were at MK by 8am (after stopping at WL).
Our only disappointment was the crowds. We really thought that the crowds would be a lot lower since we went the last 2 weeks of August. Although the campground was empty, it seems that the parks were crowded. We would go to the parks when they opened and they weren't bad. But by early afternoon, it was hot and crowded. A lot of rides had 40 minutes or more wait. We did Fastpass and that helped. I'm sure the Free Dining offer wasn't helping with the crowds!
We did get a dream while we were there. During the 2 weeks, we saw many Dream Team members granting dreams to guests, but never us. On our last night we had dinner at Garden Grill at Epcot. When they sat us at our table, they told us they had good news for us. We were their "Garden Grill Family of the Day"!! The chef came out and introduced himself and gave us a free appetizer...a yummy plate of BBQ ribs (and they were better than the ones at the Hoop Dee Doo!). As we were about to bite into them, Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale arrived at our table all at once and spent a lot of time with the kids! At the end of dinner, we were asked to sign their Dreams Guest book and then they gave us fast passes to any attraction we wanted. Prior to dinner, we had try to get fast passes for Test Track, but they were all gone when we got there at 3:30 pm. There was a 50 minute wait for standby. The kids (and mom!) was disappointed. Well, after we got the free fast passes, we headed right to Test Track! The whole evening was a perfect way to spend our last night of our vacation!
This was our 2nd time camping at Fort Wilderness and it was wonderful!! It has always been a dream of ours to spend more than one week at WDW. With the campgound, we could afford it! In fact, the rate we got during value season was cheaper than what we pay for a campground back in NJ or PA during the summer! We made a lot of memories on the trip that the kids will not forget. The kids want to know when are we going back. In fact, my daughter told me today that she wants to go back to the Fort for her birthday. Her birthday is next month!!!
Hi from another NJ camping family! Just about everyone we know was on vacation the last week of August. Maybe that's why WDW was so crowded. Could be the free dining promo as well. It didn't apply to the campground.
Something, anything....... 
Sunday morning cannot come soon enough 
I would love to know where you stopped to stay over - we have some places in mind but 2 1/2 days is great timing!! 
